The Internet of Things (IoT) is a grand vision of every single product, from your freshly mowed lawn to your curtains to your office chair all speaking to one another, but getting from now to that future requires a change in how products are powered.
At least, that is what the University of Washington’s Sensor Lab believes, revealing a new battery-free computer that can be programmed, updated, and powered using radio frequency identification (RFID).
RFID tags are usually found on clothes, electronics, and bus stations. In the past, they’ve been unable to power anything internally, but the university has reportedly made it possible to harvest radio signals and turn them into electricity.
The electricity generated is minimal, not enough to power a smartphone, but enough to send a low-power signal to connected devices. The lack of battery means the device could last for generations without a hardware fix according to the Aaron Parks, a researcher at Sensor Lab.
“Wireless reprogramming brings [these devices] into the same computing spectrum as conventional computers by permitting them to run apps in much the same way as a smartphone or wearable,” says Parks. “Now computable RFIDs can be part of the ecosystem of modern computing.”
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